The 21st Century site

Drive efficiency with quick and easy mobile applications.

When it comes to business technology the construction industry is lagging behind. It makes sense if you think about it though. You can’t lay bricks in Office 365, you can’t put together framing using code and you can’t wire up electrics in the cloud (even if you can get reception). Construction is a physical “real” thing so why should computers and technology come into the frontline?

The thing is, this lack of modernisation is actually starting to affect the industry now. Just have a look at this recent article.

“47% of people in the construction industry regard the standard of technology to be a “key consideration” for accepting a new job. 37% of respondents said they would decline a job based on poor hardware alone, while 74% believe technology makes them more productive.”

There is therefore a really good opportunity to gain a competitive edge by being the rare breed of organisation that uses technology in a useful and inviting way.  It will really set you apart if you can put useful technology in the hands of your employees.

There are two key issues though:

1. Devices need to be mobile and robust to cope with the harsh environment of the construction site.
2. Software needs to be mobile-ready, simple to use, and be able to work with patchy reception.

There are plenty of ways to get around the first obstacle. Most workers will have their own devices these days and if that’s not an option, then rolling out one or two communal rugged tablets isn’t the financial obstacle it used to be.

The second is more tricky. There are a few apps around, but they’re not really going to integrate with your back office that well and they all come at a price. The other thing is that our processes are unique, no two organisations are alike so there comes a point when you just can’t find a solution that fits your problem. And there are definitely problems:

• Material ordering can be a painfully manual process, time logging too.
• Do you manually log changes to projects? Do they always get recorded? Do they always get charged?
• How much money do you lose just by not doing paperwork. Speaking of paperwork what about all the rules and regulations that need to be adhered to? How robust is incident reporting on your sites for example?

What if you could make your own mobile app that could take care of these periphery issues, so you could get on with the job in hand?

What if you could get started on that journey bit by bit, without the need to do a full-scale digital transformation project straight away?

Hear how we helped a leading civil engineering groundworks contractor with multiple sites in the UK who needed an easy way for their workforce to place material orders quickly and efficiently out on the field.